Brent crude, one of the key barrel benchmarks for the oil price, hit a five-year low on Monday at just under 67 dollars a barrel, and one investment bank announced it saw a price possibly as low as 43 dollars a barrel by next year.

Outlooks on prices for the next two years are being downgraded, with a 28-dollar average fall predicted for 2015, and a further 14-dollar trimming in 2016.

Peak oversupply is forecast to reach the market in mid-2015, and with the Chinese economy showing signs of a possible sharp slowdown, the prospects for a stronger oil price look faint.